[Brenda G]

veza2017 I’m sorry to hear your pet is sick. Kidney disease is a wide variety of levels so you need to look at the words the vet used. “acute” means early so if the vet said Acute Renal failure it means that your dog is showing “early” signs of kidney (renal) failure. I wrote a long message just above explaining how I chose my dogs dog food to help with what was termed “Acute Renal Failure” It means the dogs numbers are showing that the kidneys are not preforming at 100% but doesn’t mean the dog is headed for the rainbow bridge. It also doesn’t mean that your dog is a lost cause. There are products on the market that can promote healthy kidney behavior. I never used them with my dog I used a brand of dog food with low phosphorus and low protein. So this is the question… Did your pet eat something like wild onions or antifreeze? Or is this a case of your dog is getting older and starting to decline in heath. Each dog is different so the signs of your dogs kidneys might not be the same signs as my dogs problem. Most dogs that are in renal failure are very thirst but not really hungry. My dog was both thirsty and hungry. So heres the flat out straight forward response from petmd.

“PetMD notes that several indicators of chronic renal failure are often observed by the veterinarian upon examination of the dog and are often present in the dog’s blood tests and urinalysis. Elevated blood pressure in a dog is an indication of kidney problems since kidneys regulate blood pressure. Blood tests that reveal the dog has anemia may indicate kidney issues. Indicators found during urinalysis of the dog’s urine include abnormal electrolyte levels, elevated levels of protein enzymes, such as creatinine and high blood urea nitrogen.
If the urine is neither concentrated nor dilute, then the kidneys are not processing urine correctly and likely are failing. Since kidney failure often causes kidneys to shrink, observation via X-ray or ultrasound imaging that the dog’s kidneys are abnormally small may point to kidney failure, according to PetMD.”

Your vet should have preformed several tests. One being a blood test to indicate kidney function second should have been a xray and third should have been a urinalysis or fecal exam. Also age and breed play a part in this. If your vet didn’t do these tests seek a second opinion immediately because it could be something like a hernia or something simple that can be fixed but if not fixed in time it could cost you and your dog.

[Brenda G]

My 12 year old box was told she had cancer and acute renal failure (acute = early renal = kidney). The vet insisted that unless I paid $200 a week for special hill’s K/D (or any other prescription diet) she would die and regardless she would die in 6 months. I was heart broken I couldn’t afford $200 a week. I had at the time 2 other dogs and a horse. So I cried for about a day straight (ok probably a lot longer than that), I love my dogs just like everyone here. I had to do my research and find the best alternative to the prescription diet. So I asked the vet if you could recommend anything else what would it be? That’s the only thing that she was willing to recommend also should mention this vet sells the dog food but was willing to give me a prescription for it to get it else where. The vet was willing to tell me that the two important things in a K/D diet were protein and phosphorus. I did my research and I called every major manufacture (iams and pedigree share the same phone number apparently a company called mars 1-800-675-3849) etc. Most dog foods contain around 0.8% phosphorus so I was looking for anything with less. I found one blend of dog food what wasn’t weight ( the weight control tastes gross and she wont eat it) controlled the price was more than reasonable at about $22 for 27lbs which would last my two dogs 2 weeks (now we have one other dog but it last them a month) This is a no sugar added no dyes and no artificial preservatives dog food (for all three brands). Here’s the kicker I could only buy it online in large bags or drive like 20mins plus for smaller more expensive bags(I had two large breed dogs and one small breed). I contacted Iams this week because the price of the dog food had sky rocketed to 47 (on amazon) which is way too much and Walmart wasn’t showing when it would be back in stock or at all. Come to find out they discontinued it 8months ago. I searched high and low and found blue buffalo (aka blue diamond) had about the same values but there have been 1400 consumer complaints and many recalls of their food and the same with purina. I did contact both companies and they did offer weight control alternatives to the dog food I was currently feeding. But again both companies had poor recall records and a lot of dogs were getting sick from their brands from diarrhea or vomiting and worse sometimes death. As my dog is a boxer she’s a natural gas bag so feeding her anything that would further upset her already delicate gastric intestinal systems is absolute a no no. Oh i forgot to put in the numbers, so when this all started I had her blood ran to see where she was at she had high phosphorus and high protein so I switched to this dog food “Iams so good Savory chicken” then took her to a different vet which was much further away by about an hour and half. The vet said that her levels still showed problems but dogs with her levels lived years so keep doing what i was doing. Anyway I’m writing today about this discontinued product because I think people should know about it. Call the number I put in and ask iams to start making the product they claim that the sales were poor but I assure you it ran out online all the time and it would sky rocket in price then drop back down. This is a good alternative to $200 a week. And they are not telling people enough about their product to say hey try this it might help your wallet and your dog. I have seen someone write about primal or nature’s as well as lotus which is really really really expensive. If there is enough pressure on iams they will bring the food back. This is working and its not breaking my already busted pocket book. It really shouldn’t be about money but when you dont have money to spend like that it kind of is the best you can afford. Once supply runs out they dont make any more and I cant find anything that she will eat. I’m not saying I know better than a vet. I am not buy any means a vet however I tested it before I put her on it full time. Switched her from pedigree normal nutrition for a week then had her blood checked again. About a year ago they gave my dog 6 months. As long as she has a good quality of life I’m happy. I’m going to buy a few smaller bags to give myself time to research incase they dont change their mind but so far the ones that are the best make your dog sick. I have done tons of research both this time and last time when I found the iams so good. It really makes me angry that people are buying it but stores wont carry it.

I found the perfect dog food Iams so good savory chicken (as well as their salmon and their beef have all the same % this is the beef but its the same as the chicken) The arrows show the two important values to a dog with liver problems

Crude Protein, minimum 21.00% <—-
Crude Fat, minimum 10.00%
Crude Fiber, maximum 5.00%
Moisture, maximum 10.00%
Linoleic Acid, minimum 1.9%
Calcium,minimum 0.65%
Phosphorus, minimum 0.5% <—-
Iron, minimum 225 mg/kg
Zinc, minimum 160 mg/k
Vitamin E, minimum 80 IU/kg

[Author]

Posts